Arts, Environment and the Child: Walking the Wheel of the Seasons

Today I met with Heather and Megan to brainstorm about school observation and lesson plan ideas. Very preliminary; we boucned ideas off one another.

Today was my first day volunteering in Ms. O’Connor’s first grade class. First graders are so small! All were friendly and curious about who I was and whose mom I was (I explained that I was a student and I knew Dylan’s mom, Heather). I helped at a reading station where 1/3 of the class read the weekly story together and then partnered up to read other stories using the same vocabulary.

After reading Holt’s chapter on reading and attending Wendy Causey’s lecture on early childhood ed., I noticed the pictorial essence in these first graders. When “reading” the stories, they were mostly looking at the illustrations for clues about the sentences on each page. They paraphrased the sentences, or had them memorized. Only a few were actually reading the words as adults do. I tried not to correct them in front of the group and only answered questions asked to me. I do not want to be intimidating, but supportive and encouraging.

This evening the painted word group met for a pilot workshop with Hirsh. I was incredibly tired after a long week, so I didn't feel that I gained as much from the experience as I could if I were well rested. I enjoyed seeing my peers' creations and discussing why we were attracted to different pieces. I was distractible and short tempered, so I left a bit early.

After the Liberal Arts Forum the painted word group met. This meeting felt very productive; I volunteered to head the email communication and tescrier announcements. By viewing some submitted art, we were able to begin to form a shape, our scope, for choosing submitted work for the show. We agreed that linguistic form was essential to all the works chosen. By the end I felt a bit overwhelmed by all I had taken on, but in retrospect I feel fine, for all has passed without trouble.

In my second visit to Mrs. O'Connor's class I taught grammar at a station with 1/3 of the class at a time. I taught/reviewed with the students that the letter "I", when referring to oneself or a person, is always capitalized. They seemed to recognize this concept easily. They were asked to write two sentences including capital "I", then draw a picture about one of the sentences. Most children chose to draw about the sentence: "My mom said that I could go, too." I enjoyed brainstorming where their moms could have allowed them to go; they came up with places like Disneyland, the fair, the grocery store, outside. I had an example picture of a movie theater and many of the children were excited to copy my letters spelling "Movie Theater" onto their pictures.

I am beginning to brainstorm ideas for my lesson. I found a book called "Leaf Man" which talks about harvest time and where leaves go in the autumn. It has beautiful illustrations using leaf collage. I might read this book and then let the children create leaf people using found leaves and other fallen plant materials.

I am proud of how the tescrier announcements turned out. I sent them to my peers and to Hirsh for review, then sent them to the Evergreen community. I am excited to hear from artists!

Today I played a fun and hectic game with small groups of first graders. The story of the week is about corn, so I led a game about food categories. In the pod area I spread out a large paper with different spaces for types of foods (dairy, sweets, meat, vegetables, fruit, pasta/bread, fats) on the floor. When children came out to me they were very curious about what we were going to do. They helped me to read to different categories of food, then I handed them each a laminated image of a kind of food. I asked them to put it in the group in which they thought it belonged. As a group we helped each other figure out confusing foods, like pizza and yogurt. When confused, they tended to choose what taste first came to mind as the category. For example, they always put yogurt in "sweets" because it tasted sweet. I would then ask them what yogurt was made of, and then they'd realize it went with the "dairy" category.

The hour was divided into 20 minute stations. I found that 20 minutes was too long for this activity. For 10-12 minutes the children stayed involved, but then they got distracted or "bored." I attempted to keep their focus by asking them about their favorite foods, or what they ate for breakfast, etc.

Quote of the day: "Vampires exist, just on other planets."

Happy Halloween! I've been receiving emails from interested artists for Painted Word. Their mediums range from water color to photography to installation.

It rained, no, it POURED last night! This is worrisome for my fall leaf art project; I need to see if there are still enough leaves to collect for the class. I could also do something with corn, Northwest animals, celebrations, or dandelion. I am relieved after talking with Hirsh; my lesson doesn't have to be a HUGE endeavor. Starting small; I feel confident with this approach.

I have begun research on dandelion, my plant for the fall plant study. I have spent so much time pulling these plants as "weeds", with all the yard work I have done in the past. To find another association for this plant is inspiring.

Look around yourself, Abby. You forget sometimes. There are copious amounts of leaves...everywhere!

At my station today I read a book titled “Why does it Rain?” to the students. It was about the hydrological cycle, describing how plants and animals need water to survive and how water evaporates and reforms into clouds, thus continuing the cycle. I was surprised at how knowledgeable these first graders were about weather! They knew what evaporation meant and talked animatedly about water and rain cycles. I then introduced them to a word puzzle using vocabulary related to water; rain, evaporation, river, plant. When they finished I brought out colored pencils and let them draw what they pleased. Most chose to draw rain and clouds and rainbows.

I enjoy asking open-ended questions to young people. Their answers never cease to amaze me. Today, after reading the story, I asked, “Does anyone have anything to say about what we just read?” One girl shot up her hand excitedly. I called on her and she replied, “Did you know I’m seven?!” Kids are so excited to share their experiences! I was tickled that she so exuberantly shared her age with me. Other responses to my question were about enjoying mud puddles, seeing rainbows, watering plants.

I discussed my lesson plan with Mrs. O’Connor at lunch today. I brought in “Leaf Man” to show her and will bring a written plan next Thursday for her to review. She seemed excited about my contribution to the class. I would like to continue volunteering in her class on a weekly basis. I enjoy connecting to my community this way, it is indescribably rewarding.

Met with painted word group, distributed posters and planned for workshops. Felt good to connect again as it had been awhile. While we were meeting, I ran into a teacher friend of mine, Chris Traber. She taught me to tap dance when I was young and now she teaches at Horizons Elementary in the North Thurston school district. When I told her about this program, she seemed very interested, and spoke passionately about education reform within the public school system. She teaches music and theater, and is finding her position in jeopardy with the No Child Left Behind act. She urged us to contact her to discuss how to encourage the arts within public schools. I am inspired by her passion. I look forward to meeting with her and asking her questions. The painted word group overheard our conversation and seemed interested in meeting with her, also. I want to read/research about educational philosophy and education reform.

My lesson plan gives me the opportunity to be present with autumn by spending time collecting leaves. I enjoy this simple practice of observation and collection. Crisp days, vibrant colors.

Today I assisted small groups with a paragraph-writing assignment. They had been introduced to the activity by Mrs. O’Connor, and I was helping them to finish before lunch time. I’ve observed, in past circumstances and today, that the children compare themselves to their classmates a lot. In this case they talked and observed about where they were in the paragraph compared to their peers. I gently suggested they focus on their own work and not worry about what others are doing. Some children were very distracted by these comparisons. I wonder why they do this. Are they worried about who finished first? Are early finishers given more praise? Or is that even the issue?

One writer said the letters out loud to herself while writing words.

Tonight was the first meeting of the Women’s group. We formed around Heidi’s initial interest in creating pregnancy art, which developed into creating art as a community of women, each processing through the autumn season with their own foci.

I created work tonight which made me proud and inspired me. It has been awhile since I’ve felt the rush of creativity. What a release. I’m planning to submit one of the pieces I made tonight.

Today I invited my father to participate in the workshop. He is a poet and I thought he would enjoy the opportunity to explore his words in a new way. Today’s workshop focused on calligraphy. I find printing words in this fashion very satisfying. My father enjoyed meeting Hirsh and the experience of the workshop and “playing” with words, as he described it.

After the workshop my father and I collected leaves at the Capitol campus for my lesson on the 17th. I discovered the tulip tree and leaf. The leaf resembles a tulip flower. I will share this leaf with my students. Ginkgo leaves were also collected..bright yellow and with much leaf shape diversity.

My lesson was a success! I am so happy about how everything came together. Most impressive was how enthusiastically the children interacted/responded and how much they enjoyed creating art with leaves. *See more reflections on my curriculum page.

I’m feeling unfocused about my project presentation. I have learned so much this quarter and I feel that I’m just beginning to delve into personally-driven research about child development. I’m finding it difficult to stop researching so as to be able to reflect for the presentation.